1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to solar heaters and more particularly to a novel heating apparatus intended to be floated on a body of water whereby the water may be heated via the rays of the sun.
2. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
In the past, swimming pools or other large bodies of water have been expensive to heat because of the large volume of water involved and the loss of heat evaporated into the air above the water. Even in warm air climates where the sun heats the water to its desirable temperature during the daytime, the water cools during the night to an undesirable temperature when the ambient temperature drops. Additionally, heat loss is experienced due to the wind passing over the body of water. In colder climates, the temperature of the water is not appreciably increased even during the daytime because of the constant loss of heat to the cool air. Thus, conventional heating equipment is required to maintain a suitable water temperature if there is to be optimum use of a pool and such equipment is costly to install and expensive to operate.
Some attempts have been made to employ solar heating as an expedient for maintaining pool water at a comfortable swimming temperature. These expedients have generally centered around the employment of coils of pipe or tubing exposed on a roof of a building and connected to the pool circulating water supply. Some heat is, in fact, captured by this expedient. However, such a system naturally requires power to pump pool water through the pipes and then back into the pool. In other instances, solar heating have been made utilizing floating units or blankets and such devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,893,443; 3,453,666 and 3,072,920. However, these attempts have their limitations in that the various heat absorbing materials normally employed are heavy and have a tendency to sink below the surface unless adequate means are provided to support the material at the sides and ends. Usually this also means that such a cover must extend entirely across the pool when in use and, consequently, may become cumbersome to remove when the pool is used and to replace it afterwards. Furthermore, many of the floating units that are employed in the prior art do not completely engage or touch each other when riding on the surface of the body of water so that collectively, a substantial surface area of the pool is exposed to the air for radiation of heat into ambient atmosphere. In other instances, the units are not provided with any means for adequate separation between the top and bottom panels so that the top panel is subject to gravity deviation for stretching so that the air filled chamber or compartment separating the opposing surfaces of the top and bottom panels collapses and therefore is not serving its intended purpose.
Therefore, there has been a long standing need to provide a solar heating apparatus which may be readily installed or removed from a surface of a body of water and when so installed, adequately covered and provides a cover for maintaining a body of water in a heated condition.